Dance Divas

Now that school is out and our little darlings are ours again, I'm sure we have had time to reflect on how awesome our teachers are that spent the whole year working with our kids and are looking forward to meeting next year's teachers.  I enjoyed teacher appreciation week for two reasons.  First reason:  I was a teacher again and my sweet students spoiled me rotten!!  Second reason:  I get to help the kids make things for their teachers.  Aubrie gets Highlights magazine and in there it had a how-to on painting pots and she brought it to me and said she wanted to do it for her teachers.  Each teacher got their pots with a flower and we found the free printables here.  Then Emilie and Kyle's teachers also got a Sweet Cici's giftcard and I wanted to attach it to something.  I found some cute printable tags here that someone attached to an ice cream scoop.  But I figured the teachers already had a scoop, so we made a fake ice cream cone and attached it to that instead.

If you don't have school aged kids, this is still fun to print out for a Sunday school teacher or a friend!

 I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never been to Radnor Lake.  Who knew there were these awesome trails and lake right in the middle of all these neighborhoods?  Well, Katie did.  When Kyle had to stay home from school because he had strep, I dropped the girls off at school and met Katie there and walked the trail with Kyle and Rhett.  She also taught me that little boys like to throw rocks into water and we sat there forever while they happily threw their rocks.  I'm glad I have so many friends around that have boys.  

Super mom Katie and "baby" Rhett

gorgeous Radnor Lake

 Some days I think my children plot against me.  I think they have a secret pow-wow during breakfast and decide what level of stress they are going to give mommy that day...

  "Alright guys, today we are going to do a code red morning.  Let's see how mad mommy can get!  Emilie, you whine about everything and don't listen to mommy.  While she is painting our nails, pick up the bottle of polish that she told you to put down for the ninth time and throw it on the floor so it shatters in pieces and ruins the rug.  Kyle, throw your body at the pantry door because a bowl of cereal, a muffin, and half a granola bar didn't fill you up.  Then while mom is loading the dishes in the dishwasher, sneak back to her bathroom and take all the nail polish out from the cabinet and put it in her sink.  Then try on all her shoes and sprawl them throughout the bathroom and her room.  While you guys are doing that, I'm going to be super drama today and say stuff like, "Mom, you don't love me anymore."  or "How come you don't do anything fun anymore?!" and then while she is distracted by Kyle, I'll wrestle with Emilie on the couch and make her cry six times.  Kyle, while Emilie is screaming bloody murder, go grab her now cold bagel off the counter and start licking the cream cheese off of it until Petey figures out you have it and takes it from you.  When he does, scream like it is the end of the world."

 (That was all Aubrie-the-master-mind plotting against me.  And yes, all those things have happened recently.)

nail polish incident #1

Adam's parents and grandparents came to town.  The girls had a dance recital and it's been about 6 months since we have seen Adam's grandparents (Granny & Gaga)  While they were here we celebrated Adam's dad's birthday.  The girls enjoyed shopping for him.  Emilie picked out a pink tie and Kyle picked out some red, white, and blue windmill fans for the lawn, and Aubrie got him a mug that you can put their pictures in.  They love shopping for people.  I forgot to mention earlier that when Adam took them shopping for mother's day (the day before mother's day), they all got to pick something out for me.  I got a waffle maker, oven mitts, and some new knives.  He likes to take them to the kitchen section at Kohls.  Before I opened my gifts Aubrie said, "I hope you like our gifts, mommy, even though we did ALL of our shopping yesterday..."  That made Adam feel guilty!

Adrian and his two babies

I love when Gaga and Granny come and stay with us.  Granny gets up and plays with the kids before everyone else gets here and she has all the cool old school games that she teaches them.  They love playing "hide the thimble" (hide and seek with an object, usually a thimble but we don't have one) and their other favorite is stone school.  Granny has a stone in her hand and hides it behind her back.  If they guess the right hand, they get to move up a step.  Each step is a grade in school.  First to get to 8th grade wins.  

Playing stone school

And then we had the dance recital.  The girls took ballet and tap.  For the recital, their classes performed tap numbers.

Adam got the girls flowers

Emilie's class performed to "Baby Face".  It was so cute.  Emilie didn't look around to see what all the other girls were doing.  She was smiling big, acting like everyone was there to see HER.  She knew most of her steps and did a great job.

Emilie loving the spotlight

Aubrie's class did "Twist and Shout"  Aubrie was on the end and she had a very serious face on.  She was concentrating so hard about getting the right steps and not messing up.  Plus, lately she has been acting shy.  She also did a great job but didn't enjoy it quite as much as Emilie did.  Next year they are doing just ballet

Her final pose.  So serious! :)

 I've been trying to wear the kids out this week.  We went to the zoo the other day and enjoyed the merry-go-round, feeding the birds, seeing a couple of exhibits and playing on the playground.  Today I met Katie and we walked the trail by the Concord YMCA.  Aubrie and Higgs rode their bikes and I pulled Emilie and Kyle in the wagon while she pushed Rhett in a stroller.  We walked all the way over to Crockett Park and let the kids play on the playground and then went back to our cars.  It ended up being a 3 mile bike ride for Aubrie.  Let's just say she napped good.  Emilie, though...shew.  That girl.  We've had some sleeping trouble with her.  

A couple of months ago we got sick of her waking up in the middle of the night and coming to our room for no reason whatsoever.  So we finally told her that if she wakes up in the middle of the night and is scared, she can sneak into Aubrie's bed.  (She can be Aubrie's problem now.  Haha)  Well, now every morning we find her in Aubrie's bed.  She sits awake in her bed until she think Aubrie is asleep and then goes over there and climbs in bed.  She lays right up against her and even has her head on Aubrie's pillow.  Sometimes we hear Aubrie telling her to move over late at night on the monitor.  Aubrie secretly likes it because one evening we told her that we weren't going to let her sleep with her anymore and she begged us to let Emilie stay.  Well, this whole week I've had to go up to Emilie's room and hold her down and lay with her.  She kept getting up and going into Aubrie's room.  So finally, I shut her door and told her to stay in her room, which she HATES her door being shut.  Then I'm downstairs and it sounds like she's re-arranging furniture.  So I yell up to her and she responds, "What mom?! My door is shut!!!"  Yeah Emilie, but you're bouncing off the walls!  GO TO SLEEP!! So if I go up and lay with her and hold her arms with my arms, she falls asleep in less than five minutes.  

Oh, look!  Miss I don't need a nap just woke up!

Snack break at the zoo.

The other day at dinner Emilie said, "Hey guys!  Can I say something crazy??" For all of you that live in a hole, this is a line from a song in Frozen, but it is totally appropriate for Emilie to start all her conversations off with that question.

After our 3 mile walk, we came home to have leftovers and thought I would make the kids homemade smoothies.  My healthy mom friends would be so proud, I snuck kale into their smoothies.  When they asked me what the green stuff was, I just told them it was the green part of the strawberry I forgot to take off. :)

After lunch, I saw Kyle grunting so I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said yes.  So I hurried him in the bathroom and he actually went in the potty!!  And get this!  While I was in the bathroom with him, cheering him on and talking it over, I hear Emilie tell Aubrie, "Hey Aub!  Let's go upstairs and do some homework!" and Aubrie responded with, "Not right now Em.  I'm loading the dishes in the dishwasher."

NO LIE.

I couldn't believe it.  I texted the afternoon happenings to Adam and he said, "Don't worry.  They'll give it to you at nap time."  Sure enough, he was right.  I once again had to go put Emilie in a hug lock to get her to sleep and Aubrie woke up whiny from her nap.

It was the first time that I thought we are getting pretty close to a sweet spot.  Sweet spot for me is everyone wiping their own rear and everyone able to buckle themselves in the car.  It's coming, folks.  It's within my grasp and I can't wait!  

Oh, and homework is just a bunch of preschool worksheets that I have copied out of a workbook.  I keep them upstairs in the girls art center in the playroom and told them if they bring me a completed worksheet, they can have a treat (one skittle).  They are SO into it.  Aubrie helps Emilie.  Emilie is getting better at writing her name.  Some of the stuff is too easy for Aubrie, so I have her turn it over and make her draw me something that starts with that letter.  Or we spell and sound out a couple of words that begin with that letter.  You can find free printables anywhere online.  Maybe your kids would be into doing "homework", too!

I leave you all with my favorite chicken grilling recipe.  I've posted it before a couple of years ago, but it's so good I'll post it again.  When I make this, I buy all drumsticks because if I buy a whole chicken, the kids take the drummies and I get pieces I don't like.  But Adam prefers when I get a whole chicken.  So somethings I'll grab some other pieces to go with the pack of drumsticks.  If you like cilantro and lime, you'll love this recipe.  

Cilantro Lime Chicken
from mom

24 pieces of chicken

24 large sprigs of cilantro

3/4 cup melted and then cooled butter

6 Tbsp olive oil

6 Tbsp chopped cilantro

For Paste

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

2 grated limes

Mash the tablespoon of garlic with the salt and pepper.  The salt helps it grind into a mushy paste.  Combine the garlic paste with the grated lime peel.    Take a piece of chicken and rub the garlicky lime paste under the skin and tuck in one piece of cilantro.  Do this until all pieces have the paste and one sprig of cilantro under the skin.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Combine the 6 Tbsp of olive oil, melted butter, and chopped cilantro.  Brush this on the chicken while you grill.  Enjoy!

Love to all!

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